Lets talk Drillings

[Altitude sickness]

Fanzoj has the luxury to build what ever comes to mind. Like kids seeing what they can come up with.

 

[Muskox]

Patrick is a nice guy, I had an email chain with him a few weeks ago. Prompt reply, considering I wasn't buying anything.

 

[Muskox]

Jagdwaffenkunde : Barthold, Willi: Amazon.de: Books

Jagdwaffenkunde : Barthold, Willi: Amazon.de: Books

www.amazon.de

You need this book, if you want to understand the repair and manufacture of European multi barreled firearms. It is in German, but you could always tear it apart and translate it page by page if you needed to.

 

[steve white]

I think that pre-war drillings are a great undervalued buy for what you get. Many of them would cost more for just the engraving today than what you pay for the whole gun, and they have just never had the pricing of English doubles, etc. My favorite gun is a Christof Funk "Jubilaum" drilling, ornately engraved. It is my go to upland bird gun, and swings like it was made to fit me. It made two consecutive 250 yd. laser measured shots on white tail deer. It is light, even though a 12 bore over 8x57jr. I have two others, both 16 ga., and one a true "one off" custom. All are scoped. One is claw mounts, the other are Kreighoff style sliding clip mounts without the tops. Fortunately the width of the dovetails match the width of rings for the CZ 527, so an easy fix.

Beware the bad drillings--those "bubba'ed up," those that were never regulated properly--with often one shotgun barrel crossing too close in. So a good reason to have a return privilege after shooting if possible! Check for loose actions as they will never be cheap to repair. Buy in the best condition you can find, particularly the rifle bore. Loads can be worked up if the accuracy potential is there. I could write a good two pages of what I have seen happen, which were the real bad reasons those drillings were for sale in the first place. YOU want to buy the one that is so good, you almost have to pry it from their cold, dead fingers--not one that has been someone else's problem. Be great if you could handle it to certify its balance and fit, of course.

Good luck. One other thing--these were made by people who knew how to build quality, and regularly include touches like cast off, barrels struck for balance, and a feel when you shoulder them that is hard to quantify, but you know it when you feel it. I love them.

 

[ActionBob]

One thing I'm not sure has been covered yet... Most Drillings I've seen had had full chokes on both shotgun barrels. One particularly nice Dilling I wanted had the chokes visibly stretched out. Obviously someone had shot some unforgiving slugs through them. Ruining the barrels.

 

[IvW]

Krieghoff are half and 3/4 fixed chokes or insert chokes.....no worries if using Brenneke....

 

[steve white]

One thing I'm not sure has been covered yet... Most Drillings I've seen had had full chokes on both shotgun barrels. One particularly nice Dilling I wanted had the chokes visibly stretched out. Obviously someone had shot some unforgiving slugs through them. Ruining the barrels.

Some early drilling steels were only hard enough to use felt wads. Plastic wads are known to bulge them a bit right behind the chokes--BUT IT WON'T GET WORSE. You can go ahead and shoot them. Unattractive is all.

 

[Boone66]

I would not buy a BD14 that is more than a couple of years old. They had an abortion of time getting them to work, the first few generations sucked.

Drilling 101:
Dri = 3 so 3 barrels.
Vierlings have 4 = vier our four barrels.
Bockdrilling is a vertical drilling. To some people a Blaser d99 is a bock drilling. I do not believe it is, it is just backwards. Think over under shotgun. Or Bochflinte
Kugeldrilling is a all rifle barrel drilling
Doppenbuchsdrilling is a double rifle drilling.
You could also have a Doppenbuchsbockdrilling. Double rifle with 1 shotgun barrel in the over under configuration.
Or a Bochkugeldrilling 3 barreled over under drilling.

Cartridges
6.5x55 yes, but not common. Mostly sold to Scandinavian countries.
7x57 probably not, but yes to 7x57R
7x57R would be super common
8x57R super common
8x75R not impossible to find, but not common in export guns
There is another 7mm Vom Hoffe round for Rimmed cartridges really rare
10,3x60R probably not commonly exported, but they exist popular in Switzerland
9,3x57R popular in Scandinavia
7x65R yes and very common
9,3x74R yes
5,6x57R unfortunately yes but not super common
5,6x52R yes 22 Savage
5,6x50R common, but maybe not exported kind of a 222 Rimmed kind of
6,5x57R very common
30 Blaser common
8,5x63R newer round, not super common but not impossible
30-06 oh yes, lots
308 yes, very popular now
270 rare
243 not sure rare, but not common
6x50R rare
6x63R rare
222 Super common

Then you will run into einstucklauf's Or insert barrels most in 22 based cartridges like the 5,6x52R, 22 Hornet and 222.

There will be others, and old calibers like the 9,3x72R and others that approximate it.

Current production is limited to Blaser, Krieghoff and Merkel. Sabatti made some for a while and another Italian company did too, but I don't think they are currently in production. I would not buy an Italian gun unless it was cheap.

New Drillings here in Germany are basically a $10,000 start.

Custom Drillings from like 30 or so makers on both sides of the Alps are still made. Suhl, Ulm, Ferlach, Innsbruck, and so on. I would say $20,000 would be a start. Maybe $17,000 for a super base gun if you are lucky. Most will be $35-75,000.

eGun

This is the German Egun website for Drillings.

https://www.egun.de/market/item.php?id=20068128. 3500 Euro Blaser D99 in 7x65R/20/20. This is a spectacular rifle for this price.

https://www.egun.de/market/item.php?id=20034174. This Bockdrilling is a dream.

Do you know how to get barrel inserts shipped to the US

 

[Boone66]

I bought a Bubba drilling, broke. Through the stock, then bolted together and wrapped with electrical tape. Seller could only get the shotgun barrels to fire and refused to take the tape off, to test the rifle barrel. I got it cheap..for a drilling and preceeded to take it apart and fix it. I'll restock it some day, but I got it fixed and shooting. I took pictures of the process if you guys are interested. I got it regulated and took a deer last fall with it and a turkey this spring. 16ga x16ga over 9.3x74R

 

[Hornedfrogbbq]

We are huge fans in south Texas. Perfect gun to walk with...whitetail, turkey, pig, quail, javelina, dove, muleys...heck even elk out west.

 

[Challer]

There are many used drillings in my area - Richmond and generally Virginia - brought back by military personnel. They can’t give them away at gun shows. I would spend some time looking used locally (not at the lgs) first.

 

[Boone66]

There are many used drillings in my area - Richmond and generally Virginia - brought back by military personnel. They can’t give them away at gun shows. I would spend some time looking used locally (not at the lgs) first.

if they cant give them away, i'll take them. if you find one up here, they are pretty expensive.

 

[Muskox]

The problems with military guys and drilling is that they think that a $500 here in Germany rifle is worth $5000 in America.

We can get drillings and combo guns for cheap, but most good quality ones are still $2500-7000 on the used market.

Old guns that have been used hard for a long time are the $500 ones.

These guns are probably worth $1500-2000 in America, but everyone wants to make 10 times their money.

I used to import Martini Henry's from Afghanistan. I paid $65 for them, and I sold them for $300. If someone offered me $150, then they got one.

A friend here bought an honest side lock Krieghoff the was built in the 1990's for a song here, as the scope was shot. And it was in claw mounts.

He gave $1200 for it, and spent $1800 on new mounts here in Germany and $1800 for a new scope. Got a $18,000 rifle in perfect condition for $4800.

 

[Boone66]

The problems with military guys and drilling is that they think that a $500 here in Germany rifle is worth $5000 in America.

We can get drillings and combo guns for cheap, but most good quality ones are still $2500-7000 on the used market.

Old guns that have been used hard for a long time are the $500 ones.

These guns are probably worth $1500-2000 in America, but everyone wants to make 10 times their money.

I used to import Martini Henry's from Afghanistan. I paid $65 for them, and I sold them for $300. If someone offered me $150, then they got one.

A friend here bought an honest side lock Krieghoff the was built in the 1990's for a song here, as the scope was shot. And it was in claw mounts.

He gave $1200 for it, and spent $1800 on new mounts here in Germany and $1800 for a new scope. Got a $18,000 rifle in perfect condition for $4800.

I wished I could have bought a drilling when I was in Germany in the 80s, but they were all way over what I could afford. I do know what you mean though, they see a high dollar drilling on line, or any gun and think that is what theirs is worth.